Four Detained After Brazil Club Fire

Investigators Focus on Pyrotechnic Called 'Sputnik,' Expired Permits and a Lack of Emergency Exits

Authorities arrested three men in conjunction with the deaths of more than 200 people in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil. John Lyons reports on the latest on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.

By

Rogerio Jelmayer and

John Lyons

Updated Jan. 28, 2013 6:33 p.m. ET

SANTA MARIA, Brazil—Authorities detained four men in conjunction with the deaths of more than 200 people in a nightclub fire in southern Brazil over the weekend: two of the owners of the venue and two performers whose pyrotechnics display allegedly went awry and started the blaze.

Fire Rips Through Nightclub

People run away as firefighters try to put out a fire at a nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil Sunday. AFP/Getty Images

State authorities said the detentions were "temporary" and were part of efforts to push the investigation forward, a legal power available to Brazilian courts, and didn't necessarily mean the men would be charged.

At issue was a pyrotechnic device used by the band that its members and police refer to as a "Sputnik."

Survivors of the fire—Brazil's deadliest in nearly five decades—have said in local radio interviews that around 2 a.m. Sunday a Roman candle or emergency traffic flare that figured in a country-music performance ignited a fire in the roof of the club, called Kiss. Witnesses said either a musician or a security guard grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to stop the fire. But the extinguisher didn't function, according to accounts by survivors and a band member in television interviews.

What ensued was a chaotic scramble for the only way out: a single entrance in a large nightclub that had no emergency exits, according to police investigators. At least 232 people died, mainly of smoke inhalation, according to police. Around 130 were injured; officials said at least 10 of the injured were fighting for their lives.

Police identified the two detained club owners as
Mauro Hoffmann
and Elissandro Spohr.
Mario Cipriani,
a lawyer for Mr. Hoffmann, said his client was a passive investor in the establishment and believed it to be up to code and meeting legal standards. Representatives for Mr. Spohr couldn't be reached to comment. The detained band members weren't identified by police. Representatives for the band couldn't be located.

A fire swept through a crowded nightclub in Santa Maria, a small town in southern Brazil, claiming at least 232 lives and plunging the nation into mourning. The WSJ's Brazil bureau chief tells us more about Brazil's deadliest fire in decades.

Marcelo Arigony,
a state police investigator, said the club's permits were expired at the time of the fire. What's more, police are investigating whether the permits were lawful considering the club had only a single exit. Another line in the investigation is whether the pyrotechnic show was in line with fire-safety laws.

The club didn't have a video system, making it difficult to determine how many people had entered the club on the night of the fire.

"We are investigating and without a doubt those responsible [for the fire and the deaths] will be identified," Mr. Arigony said.

The band, called Gurizada Fandangueira, had advertised its use of pyrotechnics as part of its performance of a raucous style of Brazilian country music featuring the accordion. Band members said on television that the band's accordionist,
Danilo Jaques,
was among the dead. According to witnesses quoted in radio reports, he re-entered the club in search of his accordion.

Eliel Lima,
the group's drummer, told Globo Television that as a player hired mainly to drum he knew little about how the band's pyrotechnics functioned. He said once the fire began, it quickly became difficult to get out. "It was hard. I had to push the door with my foot. When I got out, there was a giant plume of smoke," Mr. Lima said, pausing at one point to shed tears for the death of his band mate.

Other grim details of the tragedy emerged Monday. Many of the dead were found trapped near bathrooms off to the side of the stage in the nightclub. Investigators theorize that they must have been looking for an emergency exit as access to the main door had become clogged with people trying to get out. But there was no exit there.

"People got lost in the corridor that led to the bathrooms and were overcome by toxic smoke that quickly suffocated them," said Capt. Jair de Oliveira, a military police spokesman.

In a statement, the club management vowed to cooperate with authorities and defended its response to the fire. "Our employees have the highest technical qualifications and are adequately trained and prepared for any contingent situation."

The statement added, "In this first moment, the priority of the club is to give all the attention necessary to survivors and relatives of the fatalities."

The detentions came as relatives and survivors of the blaze began burying the dead, many of them college students who had come to the small town of Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul state to study agronomy and other subjects. The nightclub was packed Saturday as students gathered to celebrate the return to classes at the nearby Federal University of Santa Maria after the summer holiday.

More

On Monday, Santa Maria, a normally vibrant, tightly knit college town, was somber, with many businesses closed in mourning and some tying ribbons to the antennas of cars. Hundreds of people attended an impromptu prayer vigil in the late afternoon. Throughout the day, relatives of the dead gathered in a makeshift morgue in a basketball gymnasium not far from where the fire took place.

People gathered around caskets, many crying, others in stunned silence. One by one, families took caskets away to be buried.

It is nearing the end of Brazilian summer, and the temperature in the inside the muggy gymnasium rose well past 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Occasionally, a mourner would faint, sending emergency workers scurrying over to help.

"I lost about 15 friends in this tragedy, between students, club workers, and the band member," said
Benhur Vieira,
a 28-year-old events promoter who often worked with the club and counted himself lucky he didn't attend Saturday night's concert.The disaster ranks among Brazil's deadliest fires in decades, and plunged the South American nation into mourning. President
Dilma Rousseff
traveled to the scene on Sunday and met with survivors.

"It is a tragedy for all of us,'' said Ms. Rousseff, who launched her political career in Rio Grande do Sul state.

The fire adds to a chilling list of nightclub disasters over the past decades. In the largest, 309 died after a fire spread in a nightclub in Luoyang, China, on Christmas Day in 2000.

Improvised pyrotechnic performances inside nightclubs were to blame in at least three other such tragedies, including one that killed 194 in Buenos Aires in 2004 and another that killed 152 in Russia in 2009. In one of the deadliest nightclub fires in the U.S., a pyrotechnics display during a 2003 performance by the rock band Great White at a Rhode Island nightclub set a blaze that killed 100.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.